My uneducated guess is that if you are wondering about ,for example, four
foot waves in 90 ft depths it's hard to imagine much effect. But with 20 ft
waves, there might be some connection...

As  as I read your post, the first thing I thought of was currents....I don't
know why, but a two or three knot current has a BIG effect on waves in the
two to six or eight foot range....

Eastern Long Island Sound, for example, with two or three knot peak currents
is considerably rougher than Western,with only one knot max currents, when
the wind and current are opposed....

Cheers,
Rob Brueckner
1972 Hatteras Yachtfish

An observation on wave effects.

We were fishing the five fathom bank on dad's 35 foot wooden Chris Craft
about 15 miles off Cape May. It was summer and a tropical storm was passing
off Bermuda 650 miles further offshore but pushing a large ground swell
towards Jersey. The weather was warm, clear and winds 5-10 knots from the SE.

When we arrived at the bank we noticed the sea had a different look to it,
one I couldn't understand and is difficult to describe, sort  of oily
looking with some slick areas and bits of foam. We started catching fish
immediately as we trolled crossed the contour from 100 feet to the 25-30
foot depths of the bank. In this area the swells were much steeper, up up
up then down down down the other side.

We caught four or five big blue fish over the next several hours, when I
looked out to sea and saw the scariest site I've seen since I started
boating at age 5. Coming at us was a huge cresting wave. I have no idea how
big it was but dad and I barely had time to talk about what to do. We were
pointed at the monster and had no time to turn around and run to deeper
water. Instantly I realized what the surface of the water was trying to
tell me three hours ago. It was trying to tell me that huge waves were
breaking on the reef and that you shouldn't be fishing here!

Dad and I decided that the wave would push us back and crush us if we
didn't give the boat more head way into it. And we wanted to go over it
before it broke on top of us. So we increased power and headed for the
crest. When we hit the wave you could see thru the top 5 feet, the boat
clipped thru it and we looked down at air. The boat was airborne with an
altitude of at least 15 feet. We hit with a great crash breaking two of the
cockpit windows and dislodging the rest of the windows as the 25 year old
boat crashed into the trough. Both dad and I were air born as well and dad
hurt his back when we hit. The next two waves were smaller and not cresting
and I took over the helm. I gave her all the power she had to get us off
the reef. On the way home I watched the reef over the stern and never saw
another breaker.

Dad recovered. The boat was fine except for the windows and I will never
get caught in the surf again, even if its 15 miles offshore. When I see
large swells on the ocean I make sure my course stays in deep water or at
least not near any underwater ledges. Crossing bars on the west coast would
scare the daylights out of me.

Skooch
Worton Creek, MD

David Stahl

           Beacon Technologies Inc.
          Serving The Delaware Valley
   Business and Residential Internet Services